Increases Capacity by 50% to Meet Growing Demand for Sustainable Wheat Protein
RUSSELL, Kan., Feb. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — PureField Ingredients (the “Company”), the largest domestic supplier of wheat protein in the United States, today announced that it has completed the expansion of its facility in Russell, Kansas. The expansion commenced in 2020 and increased PureField’s annual production by 50% of its Heartland brand protein, positioning the Company to help meet increasing demand from the rapidly-expanding wheat protein market. This expansion enhances PureField’s ability to serve customers with its reliable, American-made wheat protein while supporting ongoing efforts to provide innovative and differentiated products to its food ingredient and animal feed customers.
Brad Kelley, Chief Executive Officer of PureField Ingredients, said, “By expanding our operations, PureField is helping our customers address increasing consumer demand for high-protein, plant-based, and non-GMO foods. Continued demand growth from the bakery, pet, packaged food, and vegetarian and vegan food markets, paired with recent challenges to the global supply chain, have resulted in a shortage of wheat protein in the United States. The expansion also allows us to continue supporting local farmers and, with the creation of additional employment opportunities, our community, as one of the largest employers in Russell, Kansas.”
Mark Zurcher, Chairman of PureField Ingredients, said, “This expansion further enhances PureField Ingredients’ leadership role in the high-protein, plant-based ingredient market. Additionally, the expansion allows PureField Ingredients to add significantly more new customers while taking partnerships and services with existing customers to the next level.”
PureField takes great pride in its sustainable approach to making its products, which includes maximizing its use of by-products to reduce its carbon footprint. At its Food Ingredient facility, PureField extracts wheat protein solely from Kansas-grown wheat, which is also non-GMO. The Company also recovers starch from the wheat, which its Co-Product facility then uses to produce low carbon intensity renewable biofuel along with animal feed for local farms.
The recently-completed expansion is one of multiple projects that PureField has under development to serve the growing needs of its customers and enhance environmentally-sustainable production. PureField has also been developing a carbon capture and sequestration project since 2020 that will capture the high-purity carbon dioxoide by-product from the Company’s production process and sequester it underground, further extending PureField’s leadership position as a sustainable supplier. Additionally, given the very strong customer response to the current expansion and continued high expected demand growth,¹ PureField is also proceeding with a second expansion of its wheat protein production.